Methacton introduces Career Development Program

LOWER PROVIDENCE — The Methacton School District introduced the new Career Development Program at the monthly school board work session on Tuesday night.

The program, which is scheduled to be implemented at the start of the 2013-14 school year, is designed to help students, starting in seventh grade, decide on potential career paths.

“We would like to prepare our children for the future, beyond Methacton High School, beyond college or trade school or whatever they attend,” explained Todd Fay, director of pupil services. “We want our children to be successful and positive citizens. You’ve got to work for 40 years. You may as well be fun. It may as well be your passion.”

According to Fay, the program starts out by posing very broad questions of students, such as hobbies and parental careers. However, as the student progresses through school, the program builds upon previous information, posing more detailed questions to help the student focus on potential careers.

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“If you’re good at this and you like to do this and you have aptitude for this, then here are 200 careers that may be right for you and of those careers and here are the courses you need to look at in our high school,” said Fay. “Here are the trade schools or universities you need to look at after our high school. Here are the work experiences, job shadowing, volunteer activities that you need to look at while you are still here, so you are much more familiar with you as a human being so you don’t go away to college undecided.”

While the district already attempts to help students decide on a potential career path, the new program will greatly expand upon the programs already in place and will be much more inclusive for both students and their families because the information will be stored online.

“When students leave as seniors, they’re going to have their own ‘student success plan,’” said Fay. “It’s going to be a web-based program with a company called Naviance.”

The district began developing the program as an attempt to combat increasingly unsuccessful college experiences for students across the country, as the most common college major across the country is undeclared and less than 30 percent of college freshman earn their degree in four years, according to Fay.

The Methacton School Board will meet again on Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m. at Methacton High School.